Lantern's Light
by sparklingsweaters
Summary: The portal left a bigger mark of Mabel, more than she would care to admit even to her closest family. This a small little fic on something that has been stuck in my mind for a while!


**Chapter 1: Sleep Troubles**

The room was dimly lit, with only the glow from the battery powered lantern set on the table as its light source. Mabel Pines sighed in her seat, staring blankly at the lantern, thoughts racing much quicker than the flicker of the light. This wasn't the first time she caught herself awake at an awful hour at night, though usually instead she'll just lay there until drifting back to sleep. Not tonight though. A nightmare woke her up once more—it was always the same one too.

 _"Dipper, I'm sorry!_ " She would yell as she slipped through the blinding abyss of the portal, reaching out her hand but no one could grab it. Then everything would just sink into an inky black, with her floating through it. Was she dead? Was she in limbo? The nightmare would end the same each time, falling. Where was she falling? She could never tell, but the darkness would envelop her until she would shoot up from her sleep in a cold sweat.

Her throat tightened as she thought about the darkness and the seemingly _endless_ falling, it wasn't the falling that got to her though. It being sucked through that portal, just like Ford was years ago. Mabel knew rationally that there was no way that the portal was going to reactivate and somehow she was going to get pulled through it but still…That portal left a bigger impact on her than she would like to admit. She felt guilty, as if being terrified of the portal she was indirectly terrified of Ford—He was basically the whole reason for it. Her own thought process confused her and she would usually rationalize herself until something else occupied her attention. A groan escaped her as she put her sleeves to her face in exasperation.

' _Mabel, come on you gotta pull yourself back to bed before someone wakes up'_ She thought to herself, but her feet were like lead and moving seemed like too much energy—too much effort.

Meanwhile down the hall, Stanley Pines sat in his room staring at his ceiling. His own brother had returned the one who he spent years trying to get back. 30 whole years and he couldn't get a damned thank you for what he suffered through to bring his sibling from the other side of the portal. Getting a sore back almost every night from pouring over books upon books to aid him, the amount of times he had to hold back heartache from people calling him 'Stanford Pines' and that little jump thinking his brother was there… only to realize they were addressing him, all those nightmares and sleepless nights. After 30 years of anticipation and stress, all he got was a cold shoulder from the one he was trying to save. Stan blinked quickly and rubbed his eyes, feeling the warmth creep across his face. Sitting up in bed, he threw his glasses on and looked around the pitch dark room; a light caught his eye near the open door. It was dim, but it stuck out like a sore thumb in the dark Shack—Stan soon realized that the light was coming from the kitchen.

"What the…?" Stan mumbled to himself as he slipped his feet into his raggedy old slippers and headed out the door. Reaching the kitchen, his eyes widened in surprise—there was his grandniece sitting at the table looking much like him; tired and distressed. His heart dropped at the observation, how could sunshine like her look so sad? He cleared him throat quietly, jolting Mabel from her thoughts and she looked up at her grunkle who was now lightly waving with a small worried smile on his face.

"Mabel, sweetie, what are you doin' up right now? It's about old people wake up time—not young people wake up time!" He chuckled quietly trying to keep it light, but not even a crack of a smile shown on her face.

"Grunkle Stan, it's not _just_ 'old-people wake up time'. I felt like being up too…" She replied to him, picking at her sweater sleeve.

Stan pulled out a chair and sat across from Mabel,

"Couldn't sleep, kid?" He prompted

"How could ya tell?"

"I guessed."


End file.
